Let NYC pay for its pre-K

Our opinion: If New York City covers pre-K for its children, it will free up funds for the rest of the state. So what’s the problem?

The entirely legitimate discussion over how to provide pre-kindergarten to New York’s children has deteriorated into an utterly useless and self-serving debate over such nonsense as which areas of the state are the neediest.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio wants permission from the state Legisature to use a special income tax on wealthy people who live or work in his city to pay for full-day pre-K classes in the five boroughs.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has a different idea. He prefers to use money from the state budget to fund pre-K for the entire state, including New York City. No need to tax the rich — to whom the governor hopes to give tax cuts.

Detractors say Mr. de Blasio’s plan would just drive more of the well-off away from the state, shifting the entire tax burden on everyone else.

Mr. Cuomo added his own twist last week, arguing that pre-K should not be something only rich school districts can afford — implying, it seems, that Mr. de Blasio’s plan to have his city pay for its own program was an elitist approach that somehow harms the poor children of the rest of the state.

Mr. de Blasio didn’t help his cause by responding that pre-school children in the New York City are among the poorest in the nation. Immediately, mayors and state senators from across the state reacted angrily, saying they were offended by Mr. de Blasio’s remarks and that their communities were just as poor or even more impoverished than the Big Apple.

Lost in these sidetracks is this fact: Mr. de Blasio’s idea would help the rest of New York out, a reality that should be obvious to Mr. Cuomo, Senate Republicans, and upstate mayors.

The governor well knows that coming up with enough money to fund pre-K statewide from the tight state budget will be no easy task, especially when he’s also proposing a two-year program to freeze local property taxes while giving high earners a tax break. Mr. Cuomo’s executive budget doesn’t come close to fully funding pre-K statewide. His excuse — that universal pre-K would take some years to fully implement — only skirts the issue.

Here’s some simple math for the governor: Allowing Mr. de Blasio to pay for pre-K by taxing the richest people who live and work in New York City would cover 750,000 children. It would not only allow the mayor to honor a campaign promise; it would mean New York City doesn’t have to depend on the state for this particular chunk of aid. Put another way, the money New York City wouldn’t need would be freed up for the rest of the state’s school districts to implement pre-K.

And Mr. Cuomo would get credit for bringing about a smart, popular pre-K program without having to raise taxes, maintaining his image as socially progressive but fiscally conservative.

We fail to see a downside here — unless asking New York City’s wealthiest residents to pay a little more for the sake of a better future for New York and its children is what’s really troubling Mr. Cuomo.

11 Responses

The Governor has jumped on the de Blasio pre-K idea because of his election year, and the failure of his idea men to propose this, “why didn’t I think of that” idea on their own. Now he just looks like a chump stealing an idea. Worse, he thinks he can get away with it because he assumes that NYS citizens will get on the bandwagon.
I’m not convinced. Not everyone has the “it’s all about the children” mindset. That’s why folks are sick to death of spiraling school costs/taxes in the first place.

Am I reading this right? I haven’t had my second cup of coffee yet but it sounds like the TU editorial board is saying that NYC should pay for their own pre-k but the rest of the state will get it for free. That should really go over big in NY. Why don’t we just have NYC pay for everything the state now pays for, that would really free up a lot of money for upstate. Maybe the Editorial Board is trying to be funny and I’m missing the humor because of a caffeine deficiency.

What I’m wondering in all of this is what’s going to happen to existing day care services? Is that where universal pre-k is going to be delivered? I’ve read a fair amount about the value of universal pre-k, head start, etc, but I don’t remember much about the delivery mechanism. It wouldn’t really be fair to have school districts run it in schools and run all these people out of business. Also, if these people are already paying for day care they should continue to pay something for universal pre-k.

Politics at its worst. This game of class warfare is getting ridiculous. It wouldn’t be so bad if these same politicians would stop playing free and easy with tax money to live the opulent life themselves. These elitists attack other elitists then waste their money. Good parenting trumps all. This from a new mayor that had a child addicted to drugs. I wonder if she went to pre-k?

Just to be clear, there’s TONS OF RESEARCH showing that universal pre-k works and is worth the money spent on it. The question is, who’s going to pay for it, particularly for the families who can’t afford it. Putting all the onus on the parents is absurd. The comment “it takes a parent to raise a child, not a village” is deranged. It takes both. What are we going to do, go back to delivering babies at home instead of at hospitals run by the VILLAGE, and sending our children to work instead of schools run by the VILLAGE. Get real. A professionally run pre-k program can provide educational and other services to a child that most families, even well-off ones, can’t provide on their own. Then what about stressed families who just aren’t in a position to provide their children pre-k services? Get real.

I was just wondering what about the money from New York States Lottery that is suppose to help schools in New York State? Is that now being deverting to pay other “Operating Expenses ” as was the funds that once existed in Social Security Programs? Thanks!